


Desert Storm

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Confessional Sex, Injury Recovery, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:03:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2146611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zoro is having a terrible time not know exactly what happened after Luffy was separated from them in Alabasta. When his captain does awake, groggy and still slightly disoriented, getting the truth from him doesn't really turn out to be too difficult.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desert Storm

**Author's Note:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

Zoro stood still, stiff, and horribly agitated behind Usopp’s chair. Nami, Sanji, Chopper, and Vivi were also seated around the polished stone table in the quiet room opposite the palace infirmary where Luffy was unconscious, wrapped up in about a dozen rolls of thick bandaging. Nami and Vivi were desperately trying to figure out what exactly had transpired between the time Luffy had been separated from them as they skirted towards Alburna on Sissors the Moving Crab, and the crew’s arrival at the Palace following the battle. 

The swordsman shifted from one foot to the other. The bandages around his legs and chest chafing him, but he knew Chopper would yell at him and just apply new ones if he tore the blasted things off. Instead he stared at the tabletop, remembering how Luffy had rocketed away from his side, snatching the Princess from Crocodile’s gold hook to throw her back. He could have just as easily returned to the Moving Crab too… why did he have to be so damn…

“The wound on his chest seemed the worst,” Chopper told Nami, “Because it goes all the way through his body at a strange angle, I think it was caused by the hook Crocodile was wearing. He’s lucky that the curvature managed to bypass his lungs and spinal cord. It came dangerously close to his heart muscle too.” 

Zoro inhaled so violently his disjointed and cracked ribs shifted, and he saw little speckles of red in his vision. 

“Zoro!” Chopper looked up from across the table. “Are you alright? You really should be lying down.” 

Usopp got up from his chair to put an arm around their wheezing, paling swordsman. But Zoro hardly noticed himself being gently coaxed into a chair by the concerned Strawhat Sniper, or the muttered annoyance from the Zoan about the first mate’s disregard for his own health, because… that bastard… He put a fucking HOOK through Luffy!? 

Nami passed him a glass of water and told him to breath. Zoro took it, allowing the others to keep believing that his discomfort was entirely due to his grievous injuries caused by Das Bones – Boroque Works Mr. One – and not reactions to the conversation currently taking place. 

Chopper was clasping his hooves together, waiting for Zoro to swallow and put down his glass before continuing on with the results of his examination of their Captain. “Actually, that wound is almost healed; there is only a little tissue damage on his chest and back. The rest appears to be back to normal. His hands are torn up, the bottoms of both feet, and he lost a lot of blood, but these are all minor, nothing really to worry about. It’s the…” the Zoan swallows hard, and he stares down at his own interlocked hooves. “The poison from Crocodile’s hook. Vivi’s father said Luffy got the antidote already, but he’s running such a high fever…” 

The doctor’s voice shakes before he falls silent, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. 

“It’s scorpion venom.” The princess whispers. All eyes turn towards her as she bites down on her lip, eyes clamped tightly shut. “Of the many dangers of the desert, of all the deadly storms or giant reptiles… the Alabasta Amaranthine Scorpion is the most deadly!” she gasps. “Use of Amaranthine venom is forbidden.” Vivi’s shoulders slump, and her face fell. She looked utterly ashamed, and so sad. Nami drapes an arm around her shoulders as she plunges on in a monotone voice very unlike her own. “Long ago, in the early days of our kingdom, the Kings’ Guard were supplied with weapons containing the toxin found in those scorpions, creatures that only live in the deepest and driest corners of the desert. The soldiers welcomed the new arsenal, something to give them an edge when wars were so commonly fought… When a rival kingdom invaded our country, the palace soldiers used those weapons on them. It is said that when the soldiers returned to the palace, they had the look of the beaten… they laid down their weapons at the king’s feet, tears in their eyes, and begged…. Every one of them, proud, honorable warriors of a bloodied kingdom that had been in the throes of endless battle for decades… they begged the King to never again use the weapons….” 

“W-why?” Usopp asked timidly. 

Vivi looked up. “Because of the way they saw their enemies die.” She whispered. “They said it took forever, and the sound of hell itself escaped them. The screaming, and the…” a tear ran down her face. “The cruelty.” She whimpered. 

The princess dissolved into tears and unintelligible gasps as Nami pulled her close, rubbing her back gently. The redhead’s own face bore streaks of silent tears as the princess shook and sobbed. Zoro suddenly found himself shivering again, the bruised hand resting on the tabletop twitching nervously. 

“Even with the antidote…” Vivi gasped against the navigator’s chest. The blue haired woman couldn’t speak after that, gulping at the air as she wept, but she didn’t need to say any more… because they all could guess. Even with the antidote… there was no guarantee of survival. 

**

The Straw Hat Pirates spent the rest of that first day in the castle, sitting at Luffy’s bedside – or, more precisely, Nami, Vivi, Usopp, and Sanji sat at Luffy’s bedside. Chopper was in a constant state of motion. Running back and forth between taking cheek swabs and drawing blood and changing the captain’s bloody bandages, and sitting at the table across the room with the attending palace physician mixing medicines, peering through the microscope, and anxiously reading though volume after thick volume of medical books (specific to the desert country and its various ills and poisons). Zoro couldn’t stand watching the reindeer jetting back and forth across the room, and he didn’t trust himself to sit next to Luffy’s bed, though he couldn’t help himself shooting fearful looks in his Captain’s direction every time he moved or made a low moan in his sleep. He just didn’t trust himself not to reach out and take that pale hand in his, to squeeze it tight and not let go until Luffy opened his eyes and gave him one of his ridiculous carefree smiles… 

“Oi, Shit Head, where the hell do you think you’re going?” 

“None of your damn business, Love-Cook.” 

He couldn’t stand it, he couldn’t watch, couldn’t listen anymore. Without really knowing where he was going, Zoro wandered the beautiful ornate halls of the Alburna Palace, hoping he’d be able to find somewhere he could train. Somewhere he could ignore his aching chest until Luffy woke up. If he does wake up. The swordsman froze. Don’t fucking think that! He berated himself, running a hand through his sweat-soaked lime-green hair. He’s going to be fine! 

Zoro’s feet finally led him outside into a blessedly deserted courtyard, finally alone where he could wrap his hands around Wado and take comfort in her familiar weight. He spun and stretched, turned, and repeated movements he had learned years ago. Movements and meditations he had used time and time again to keep his mind calm and his body tense and prepared for anything. But it was still not enough to keep the acidic rise in his stomach from burning him inside… the nauseating feeling that is Captain… that his lover… would never wake up. 

**

It was dark, and had been for a while before Zoro fell to his knees in the yard. His face dripping, bandages soaked through with blood and sweat, mostly hanging off him. Wado Ichimonji fell to the ground, clattering morosely across the dry bricks as the swordsman gasped and clutched at his chest. Some of his deeper wounds had opened, and there was blood on his fingers when he drew them away, a feint noise of panic escaping him with each exhale from his straining lungs. 

“Roronoa Zoro?” 

The Swordsman spun around with surprising agility, clapping eyes on the tan-skinned, hook-nosed guard that he recognized as having stood beside King Cobra when he and the crew had been brought to the palace following the battle. He had forgotten what the man’s name was, but Vivi had thrown her arms around him like an old and trusted friend. He relaxed a little, sitting back on his heels. 

“Princess Vivi sent me to look for you.” Chaka said, sitting himself cross legged on the ground, to better carry a conversation with the swordsman. “She was afraid you had somehow gotten lost in the city.” 

Zoro’s lips cracked into a sardonic smile. “She worries too much.” 

“Yes.” The guard commander agrees with a small knowing chuckle, staring up into the clear night sky where blue stars glittered down spectacularly above them. “It is a family trait.” He sighs. 

“So are you going to tell her where I am?” Zoro asked; sweat trickling down his arms.

“I already have. Your Nakama seemed not even the least surprised that you’ve been training, though your Tanuki looked quite put out. He insisted that you be brought back to the infirmary to have your bandages checked, but was talked out of it by the blond man.” 

“Huh. Nosey bastard.” Zoro grumbled. 

Chaka watched Zoro lean forward. He couldn’t imagine how exhausted the swordsman must be, having spent the better part of six hours training in the blazing heat and high altitude of the Palace Yard mere hours after having nearly been killed in the decisive battle between the Royal Guard and the Revolutionary army. He was just beginning to wonder just how tough and unbreakable he – not to mention his crew – must be, when the green haired pirate suddenly collapses. Sprawling on the ground as if he’s died, but the faint snoring issuing from his slightly parted lips assures the commander otherwise. 

Chaka gathered up the spent swordsman, and his fallen katana, and returned him to the infirmary where a furious Chopper insisted on cleaning his reopened wounds and wrapping thicker, tighter bandages around his entire body with determination. Zoro doesn’t wake up while this is going on, he’s too exhausted. The others, Nami and Usopp in particular, aren’t concerned; they are too busy watching over Luffy. The small noises their captain keeps making in his sleep, whispers that don’t make any sense. 

It is not until the morning that the rest of the crew succumb to their inevitable tiredness and slump over tables or into other beds. Nami simply melts against her chair at Luffy’s bedside, head on her shoulder. When Igaram pushes open the door to wheel in their morning meal he nearly trips over Usopp’s splayed and bandaged legs. 

**

“Z-zoro!” Luffy moans without opening his eyes. His voice cracks, barely audible. 

It’s the third day after the Strawhats arrived in the palace. The rest of the crew, after spending most of the day before in a deep and much needed sleep, are doing fine. Even Usopp, who’s been recovering from several broken bones and severe internal bleeding, is up and moving around. He and Nami playing cards at Luffy’s bedside when the rubber man says his first coherent word in seventy-two hours. 

“Luffy?” Nami whispers, placing a hand on his arm. He’s a little sweaty, and still too warm. 

“Z- Zoro, Nhn… ca-can’t see… y-you.” 

“Zoro!” Nami calls over to the window where Zoro’s propped himself to nap with his swords leaning against the wall beside him. “Oi! He’s asking for you.” 

“He’s awake?” Chopper squeals, rushing to Nami’s shoulder. 

“I donno.” 

Zoro pushes himself up and walks quietly to the foot of Luffy’s bed while the rest of the crew squash close to their Captain’s side. Chopper is lifting back Luffy’s eyelids to peer at how dilated his pupils are. To Zoro’s relief, the reindeer’s efforts are being pushed aside by sleepy but strong hands, and Luffy is making intelligible sentences. 

“Go ‘way. Wan- wanna s-see Zoro.” He coughs. 

Nami hurries to get a glass of water from the table, helping Luffy sit up and drink. “Don’t talk too much, you’re still sick…” 

“D-don’t care.” Luffy gasps, his voice stronger after the water. “Zoro!” he shouts, and this time he has a modicum of volume. Zoro’s hands jerk forward, grasping Luffy’s foot as it flies free from under the sheets. 

“You heard him.” The swordsman growls, noting how warm and clammy his Captain’s skin feels under his fingers. “Get lost.” 

Nami glares at him briefly, but Luffy is continuing to struggle and wriggle, and there doesn’t seem to be any point in arguing. She shares a meaningful look with the first mate as she walks passed, and the rest of the crew leaves the infirmary, closing the door behind them. Zoro only relaxes when he hears the handle click solidly. 

“Nhhnn, Z-Zoro.” Luffy mutters, his hands reaching out on either side of him, fingers splayed. 

The swordsman takes Luffy’s right hand, sitting down in the chair Nami had abandoned. “Luffy.” His gruff voice says, quietly. 

Luffy’s fingers twine in his, grasping in earnest as he struggles to open his stinging eyes. Zoro waits quietly until his captain manages it. Big brown eyes stare up at him for the first time in three days. “Where were you?” the captain croaks, his other hand reaching to stroke the side of the swordsman’s face. “…looked for you…” 

Zoro takes Luffy’s other arm as his fingers reach his ear, gently touching his earrings so that they chimed against one another. “What are you talking about, Sencho?” he asks. “You’ve been in bed.” 

“There was sand… all ‘round.” Luffy tells the older pirate, his voice sounding more and more like his own with each word. “Buried me, that Sand Croc.” 

Zoro swallowed. “Tell me?” interlacing his fingers with Luffy’s he lifts them, gently kisses each digit. Luffy watches, a smile spreading across his lips. The smile Zoro’s been wanting to see for three days. “What did that sick bastard do to you?” he asks quietly. 

But Luffy’s eyes are moving, searching the bandages that wrap around Zoro’s torso and arms, the bruises still healing on his face and hands, and the terrible gash behind his right ear that he’d received when Mr. One cut the damn pillar apart on him. “What happened to you?” he asks. 

“It’s not important.” Zoro spreads his captain’s fingers, pressing them down on the mattress and pinning his arm down as he hovers over his captain. Luffy’s heartbeat hikes as his first mate begins planting hot kisses along his jaw and down the line of his neck, teeth warring so very – very gently. “Tell me.” He says again against his captain’s skin. 

“Z-Zoro.” Luffy exhales. 

Zoro’s other hand moves to pin Luffy’s, and he leans back to observe his captain’s flushed red face, his chest bandages, the many nicks and cuts across his arms and face. “He put a fucking hook through you, didn’t he?” 

Luffy’s eyes twitch, but his smile remains on his face. 

His swordsman straddles his captain before drawing one hand across the neatly woven white wrappings. “Chopper said… Said it was almost healed, and that it didn’t stab through anything really important.” 

“Shi shi shi, yea. The bird guy got me some meat after she got me out of the sand.”

“She?” Zoro asks, his hands trailing down Luffy’s side, and his captain shudders, back arching underneath him. “Who’s she?” 

“Th-that purple lady!” Luffy gasps, feeling Zoro’s digits touching just inside the waistband the woolen pants he had been dressed in. “After that sand croc got me, he buried me in the desert… then… ahnn.” His hips give an involuntary nudge. His swordsman’s body grinding against him as he leans forward to lick a tender trail behind the rubber man’s ear and across his neck and shoulder. “Sh-she got me out, asked me… something, and then the bird-guy came….” 

“She asked you something?” Zoro purred, teeth nipping as his captain’s ear. “What was it?” 

Luffy panted, staring into his swordsman’s green eyes as he hovered over him, hands back on his hips, pressing him into the mattress and rubbing circles on his skin between the gaps in his bandages. “eh… I don’t remember…” he says, smile fading to hunger, eyes slacking and fall half-lidded, gazing at Zoro’s slightly parted lips. “Something about ‘D’.” he whispers, and Zoro doesn’t care, because he’s falling into his captain, to kiss deep and desperately. 

“Zoro.” Luffy moans into his mouth. “Luffy.” He groans back. 

The two pirates hum and twine themselves in each other until they’re unsure where each other’s bodies end and the other’s begins. Drawing breath only when in danger of suffocating, and it’s a long time before they break apart. 

“Zoro’s poking me.” Luffy smiles, holding his swordsman’s face between his palms. 

“So are you.” His first mate taunts, hand reaching down to stroke his captains sex through his clothing. Luffy keens, almost screams, as he throws his head back into his pillow. 

“Ohn hah, Z-Zoro, p-please.” 

“What else happened to you?” the swordsman asks. He knows how desperate Luffy usually is, but he also knows how exhausted he must be right now. He wants to enjoy his captain, and his captain to enjoy him, for as long as possible. Certainly Luffy doesn’t seem to be annoyed that he’s being coaxed into talking while his first mate slowly takes him apart. “The bird-guy fed you, right?” Zoro sinks his teeth into the crook between Luffy’s neck and shoulder, warring at his skin. “And we all saw you fly in with him. What happened after that?” 

The Straw Hat captain stares at the ceiling, his body tingling with arousal. Zoro doesn’t usually talk to him like this while they’re having sex, and he’s a little confused by it, but as his swordsman’s tongue softly passes over his neck, and he plants a kiss right in the warm center of his collar bone, he finds he doesn’t really care. 

“Figured out… sand croc can’t stand water.” Luffy tells Zoro, and he is rewarded with further pressure on his groin, his firmness being slowly coaxed and encouraged to swell. “So I tried to fight ‘im with water, but then… ahhmmm… then he sucked up all the water. He turned my arm…. He turned m-me into a mummy.” 

Zoro’s wandering fingers pause, briefly, as he absorbs this statement. Luffy whines a little, wriggling against him in the absence of that sweet friction he had been receiving. “What happened then?” His fingers leave his Captain’s erection in favor of slowly removing his clothing instead. 

Luffy hears the soft slide of a cloth hip-tie, and he shudders with anticipation, letting his arms hang at his sides as if he has no strength to lift them. “Fell.” He said, watching his first mate slowly strip him. “Water fell from the sky. But by then it was too late… Croc got away again.” 

Zoro kept his eyes in place with his captain, carefully, and wrapped one hand around his lover’s girth and slowly, very slowly starting to stroke. “And then?” 

Luffy’s eyes closed – his breath deepening as he keened and reached for Zoro’s shoulders, “Ahann… Chased the croc… down a hole… and… ah… beat him up.” He gasped. 

Zoro leaned forward to initiate another careful, warm kiss from his captain. “That’s all?” he asked. 

Luffy nodded, tremulously, “Oh – I, Zoro’s… please?” he moaned, and his swordsman is surprised to see tears gather in the corners of the younger pirate’s eyes, rolling down his cheeks and into his pillow. “I- I want…” 

Zoro already knew what his captain wanted. They had always instinctively understood one another – and far more than just general understanding – it was almost unnatural. While fighting they often fell in sync, and would be completely unstoppable. At feasts too, from across a crowded room they would hear each other’s silent needs, some more complicated than others. On their ship at night when everyone else was asleep they would wake and reach for each other. When they were hurt, when they wanted to take comfort in each other’s flesh, when they wanted to prove to each other they were still alive…

Luffy let out such a long and loud sound of pleasure that Zoro was sure their crew would be breaking down the door any second, but he didn’t want to stop what he was doing. Wrapping his lips around his captain’s warm need, and running his tongue across rubbery flesh. His captain’s taste… his curiously salty musk, filling his senses. Luffy’s hand weakly rested on the back of the swordsman’s head, twined in his short green hair as the older man slowly sucked and stroked and swallowed. He didn’t feel his own aches or hurts while he pleasured his captain, so much was his need to ensure the other man’s living pulse under him. To hear the steady breath and faint involuntary sounds that escaped the younger pirate’s lips. And when Luffy came, spilling into his mouth, he swallowed without a thought.

Lips slightly parted and eyes resting closed while orgasm pulsed and rushed up and down his body, Luffy felt his lover’s hands stroke his legs, his sides and arms, gently across his bandaged abdomen until the swordsman’s lips met his own, and they shared the combined taste of each other. 

“Are you tired?” Zoro crooned, fingers passing lightly across the scar on his captain’s cheek. 

Luffy’s eyes opened, but barely, brown pigment just visible between his eyelashes. “Zoro hasn’t come yet?” he says, and his hand brushes against his swordsman’s hidden erection. “…want to hear Zoro…” His eyes open a little wider, though still mostly lidded. 

Zoro kisses his captain again, tongues pressing and encircling before pushing himself up off the bed. Crossing the room he picks up a jar of medical lubricant from the table against the far wall where he’d seen Chopper tirelessly working for the last three days. Thumbing off the lid as he wandered back to his Captain’s bed, he puts the jar down on the chair before stripping off his clothes. Luffy watches him quietly. Zoro has rarely seen his future Pirate King this quiet, and realizes he must still be very tired. 

“Oi, Luffy.” He says, dropping his clothes to the ground. “If you’re… I can take care of myself if you’re too…” 

Luffy licks his lips, hungrily staring into his first mate’s eyes with a look that so plainly tell him: ‘You think I’m really ready to back down?’ 

He doesn’t need telling twice. 

Lube slicked fingers enter the younger pirate, and he’s wriggling against his swordsman, who’s other hand kneads and coaxes his recently spent cock back to full form. Small frantic sounds escaping his throat that make Zoro’s heart beat faster, his stomach hot, and his swollen sex starts to hurt just a little. A rasped breath escapes him, and Luffy’s back arches at the sound, driving his own body deeper around his lover’s penetrating fingers. 

“Hurry.” He keens, nails raking against the fist gently pumping him. “Zoro!” 

Withdrawing Zoro slides a palm of lubricant over his aching shaft, gasping as his own touch sends hot streaks of fire through his stomach and up his spine. Lifting his captain’s shivering legs and spreading them apart he pulls himself into position. With another long, deep, humming kiss Zoro pushes and Luffy lifts at the same moment, driving their connection with one sweet motion that takes both pirate’s breaths away. For a moment they are both still, fused hotly together at their hips and their eyes. After a while they both breathe again, both begin to move against each other. They cannot rip their gaze away, and stare determinedly into each other, even as their breath shortens to quick gasps and their sweating bodies rocking with increasing rhythm. The sound of their wet skin coming together matches the pounding of their racing heartbeats. Zoro’s fingers gripping with bruising strength on his captain’s wet thighs. Luffy clinging to his swordsman’s muscular shoulders. Still they cannot look away, even as their eyebrows come together, and their lips part to take in more air. 

White and red lights appear between Zoro and his Captain, but he refuses to break that precious connection. His knees pressing him forward, Luffy’s back arched to allow him such perfect and deep access into his warm body. “Captain…” he gasps. 

“I wanna feel Zoro come.” Luffy says, and he sounds so much like his normal self that all the moments of hell they’ve gone through since arriving on the Island of Sand vanish and he thrusts, reaching for that place inside his captain that he knows will prove himself the Greatest Swordsman. 

Oh… god… Sencho… L-L-Luffy! 

His hand reaches between them to grasp his Captain, and Luffy breaks that wonderful line-of-sight in favor of lifting his hips and keening Zoro’s name. Hot release spills between Zoro’s fingers, and he drives in one last time as his own blinding orgasm rips him apart. A wordless curse is forced from his lips while his lungs push out all the air in him. His legs trembling while other muscles give out, and he’s forced to put his hands down either side of his lover to prevent himself crushing the younger pirate. Sticky warm ejaculate between them as they fall into a bottomless kiss, and Luffy’s arms wrap around his neck and shoulders to gently stroke and trace small circles on the muscles of his swordsman’s pulsing back. 

“Zoro’s strong.” Luffy whispers when they break their kiss, and the swordsman rests his head on his lover’s shoulder. “I’m glad he’s strong.” 

His voice doesn’t sound right to Zoro, and he pushes himself up to catch his captain’s eyes. “Luffy?” 

“He told me… I shouldn’t count on anyone, that sand croc.” Luffy mutters, his hands trailing shakily across Zoro’s shoulders as he leaned over him. “Said that it’s better to leave everyone behind… because they’ll just hold me back.”

Zoro’s chest hurts again when he sees that Luffy’s crying again, though he’s not entirely sure his captain is aware of the glistening streaks of tears sliding down into his pillow. 

“Stupid croc.” Luffy says. “If I didn’t have everyone… If I didn’t… have Zoro…” His eyes drift closed, “Why would I… want to…” The rubber man’s arms and body go limp, lips parted as sleep seeps steadily through his spent body. 

“Sencho.” Zoro pushes his fingers though Luffy’s black hair before lowering himself to place a gentle kiss on his lover’s forehead. He’s no longer feverishly hot, and his breath is steadily, pushing in and out of his body. Pulling out, Zoro returns the jar of lubricant, and cleans Luffy’s stomach and chest, pulling the sheets back up to his shoulders before getting dressed and taking up the seat next to his bed. He’s alright. Zoro smiles, watching is captain as he sleeps. 

The door pushes open and Nami’s red hair comes into view. “Please tell me you two are finished?” she sighs. 

“Can’t see that for yourself?” Zoro snorts back at her. 

The navigator enters the room and closes the door. “Could hear you idiots all the way down the hall.” She said. “Couldn’t give it a rest until you both recover, can you?” 

The swordsman is blushing red, but decides to ignore the slight, finding the far wall suddenly very interesting. 

“Vivi says we can stay at the palace as long as we need to, and there’s still a feast for Luffy planned, when he’s all better.” Nami takes up a chair opposite Zoro, her fingers stroking their captain’s dark hair behind one ear. “He needs you.” She whispers. 

Zoro’s heart stops beating, just for a second. 

“Everybody knows about you two. I just hope you get it, Zoro.” 

“Get what?” 

“Him.” 

The door opens again, this time Usopp and Sanji enter with a couple plates stacked high with food, and Chopper has a barrel of sake tucked under one Heavy Point arm. Vivi in toe, beaming when Nami tells her that Luffy woke up just a little while ago. Chopper’s fussing over Zoro’s bandages that have come just a little loose (and why the hell can’t you keep them on for once!) since they left him alone with Luffy. Zoro’s not sure if they all know as much as Nami, but if they do – they’re not saying anything. 

They stay another three days in Alburna for Luffy’s feast, and to enjoy a short rest before receiving a cryptic call on the Den Den Mushi from that weird okama ballerina who says he’s got their ship! They’re spoiling for another mad dash away from the island with the Marines swarming from all directions. He doesn’t ask Luffy to explain his cut-off conversation about whatever-it-was that shichibukai bastard told him. If Luffy remembers and wants to tell him, he’s sure to do it without being asked. Nami keeps giving him slightly meaningful looks whenever she sees the two of them sitting side by side, which embarrasses the hell out of him, but other than that he’s… happy. Almost contented, as they pile their bags onto the Alburna steps and the Spot Bill Duck Squad assembles to take them to the Sandora River where Merry is waiting to take them back out to sea. 

“Zoro!” Luffy comes up from behind the older pirate, bowling him over when the rubber man collides with his shoulders and wrapping his arms several times around his still healing chest. 

“Dammit Luffy –!” 

But whatever diatribe he had in mind to throw at his captain, it dies on his lips. His lips that have been captured by his lover and he sinks into the other man without a thought of who is watching, even as Sanji makes a despairing choke and Vivi snaps opens her purse – Nami holding out her hand to collect her winnings on what had been a long-standing bet over her crewmates’ affections. 

“What the hell, Sencho?” Zoro gasps as he’s released and Luffy springs back to normal, landing on his feet beside his swordsman. 

“Just felt like kissing you.” The rubber man grins before running off to loudly admire how awesome it’s going to be to ride all the way to the Sandora with the Spot Billed Duck Squad. Leaving Zoro numb where he’s standing, but – however unbeknownst to himself – smiling as widely and brightly as his captain.

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was inspired by "Feelings, what a mess!" written by drcalvin. If you haven't see it yet, I highly recommend it. Comments are welcome! I hope this was enjoyed!


End file.
